Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service(76)
As we headed back to the base in our convoy, an idea started to percolate in the back of my mind, but I didn’t say anything at first. It wasn’t a big idea initially, just simply reflecting the phrase that was digging deep roots into my heart:
I can do more.
After I returned home to the States, my idea started to take shape. I knew it wouldn’t be feasible for me to fly to Iraq each month to help with USO handshake tours. I needed to do something from home to let the troops and Iraqi citizens know they weren’t forgotten.
I called the principal for my children’s school and asked if I could come in and talk to the kids about what I’d seen in Iraq. I explained that I could show a video and photographs. Then perhaps we could ask all the kids if they’d like to put together a care package of school supplies for the Iraqi children. Once the supplies were gathered, I could send the care package over to the military base in Iraq where I had contacts, and the troops I’d just met could return to the school and pass out the supplies.
The principal liked the idea. We held an assembly, and I talked to the kids about the trip and explained my plan, and all the kids seemed excited about creating care packages. The principal sent notes home with the kids, and they went to work collecting school supplies, teddy bears, soccer balls—anything the Iraqi kids might enjoy. We also had the kids write letters of encouragement and goodwill to the Iraqi kids. I didn’t know how many supplies we’d gather, but I figured anything would help and at least it would be a gesture.
Supplies trickled in. Over the next few weeks, more and more supplies arrived. By January 2004, we’d filled twenty-five big boxes. I mailed them to the base in Iraq. The troops drove out to the school again and handed out the supplies to the kids I’d met on my trip. The soldiers wrote back to me, sending photos and videos and describing the wonderful day and the happy smiles on the faces of children, teachers, and Iraqi parents.
I started thinking, Why not keep this flow of goodwill going? Not only from my own children’s school, but from other schools too. My plan was still very grassroots. Schools could get addresses of military bases themselves, or I’d help supply addresses; then the schools could simply duplicate the model. I went on radio and TV a couple times and explained how others could do what we’d done. The model stood to be win-win all around. Iraqi children and their parents would be helped. The troops would be supported and encouraged and would know that the American people were not forgetting about them. People at home could pitch in and help in a positive way. We didn’t hear a lot of good stories in the news about the war, but I knew those good stories were out there. I not only wanted to tell those stories, I also wanted to help create them.
A soldier I knew had been in touch with New York Times bestselling author Laura Hillenbrand, who a few years earlier had written the inspiring book Seabiscuit, about an underdog racehorse who persevered and ultimately became a champion. Another soldier had asked Laura if there was any way to send Arabic translations of Seabiscuit to him. He’d been reading the book, and while helping at an Iraqi school, a child had seen it and asked him about it. The soldier had told the child the story of the famous racehorse. Other kids had gathered around and listened, spellbound.
Laura had been trying to get her book translated and shipped overseas so she could donate copies to the children, and here I was trying to ship school supplies over, so it made sense that we meet. Like me, Laura wanted to support our troops and do more to help the children, yet due to a decades-long debilitating and incurable case of chronic fatigue syndrome that hits her with severe nausea and vertigo, Laura is rarely able to leave her house. Thankfully, in recent years she’s gotten a bit better, but still she’s limited to mostly staying close to home. I grew to admire this wonderfully brave and gifted person who would go on to write another bestselling book, Unbroken, about the life of World War II hero Louis Zamperini. We became fast friends and talked over our ideas.
She wanted to help the troops. I wanted to help the troops. Together we decided to start a school supply program, initially naming it Operation Iraqi Children (OIC), emphasizing the grassroots approach. We came up with a motto—“helping soldiers help children”—and created a logo of a helmet filled with school supplies. We created a website where people could go and follow guidelines about how to gather supplies and ship them over to the troops to give to the kids. I went on TV a couple more times to promote what we were doing, and Laura called her contacts. The idea began to spread, and people started to reach out to us.
What started as a simple suggestion, an encouragement to our fellow citizens to send school supplies to Iraq, quickly needed to take a new direction. We were giving people the guidelines, but we had no way of knowing if supplies were actually getting through, or what kind of supplies were being sent. I received a call from Mike Meyer, a Vietnam veteran working for the VFW. Mike had seen me talking about the program on TV and introduced Laura and me to Mary Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower. Mary ran a humanitarian organization based in Kansas City called People to People International (PTPI), which had been started by her grandfather. She offered to partner with us and essentially fold our program into her organization. Now we were able to take supplies into our own warehouse and package and ship them ourselves. I continued to promote the program on radio and television, sending people to our website, and we began to receive supplies from people all over the country. We were also able to raise funds, allowing us to purchase additional supplies ourselves.